Unit 4: Regionalism and Naturalism

In the beginning of Unit 4: Regionalism and Naturalism, it talked about the Civil War and how it affected the South so much. As the years went by, the country began to change dramatically economically. The first transcontinental railroad was finally completed being able to transport many goods around across America. Local color writers such as Mark Twain and Bret Hart named this period “the Gilded Age” for it was the time of money and riches. Many other writers such as Stephen Crane found their literary voice in naturalism where they focused on the impact of social and natural forces on the individual. Realism on the other hand started to grow, but regionalist writers such as Willa Cather shared the realist goal of every day lives.  For many past lives, the Native Americans had passed down their own ways of literature, called oral literature. Then a new role for women took a big part of this period. Women writing became very important, in which they were able to make a movement to give women the right to vote.